I am one of those people that want to start the new year with a clean slate - which means the Christmas decorations get packed up before the 31st. (Truthfully, they get packed up on the 26th....)
Anyway, since the decorations were put up and I'd been thinking about painting the fireplace a lighter color, I decided this was the perfect opportunity.
Here is a before picture:
Nachdem hier in Amerika der 26. kein Feiertag mehr ist, packe ich die Weihnachtsdeko immer relativ bald weg. Sie stand nun schon einen Monat herum, und irgendwann moechte ich einfach alles wieder "sauber" haben.
Nachdem die Deko weg war und ich schon seit laengerem mit dem Gedanken gespielt hatte den Kamin neu zu streichen, dachte ich die Gelegenheit war gerade richtig.
So sah der Kamin vorher aus:

And this is what it looks like now. It makes the room look so much brighter and I am thrilled with the "cleaner" look. Amazing what a difference a little bit of paint makes...
Und so sieht der Kamin jetzt aus. Das Wohnzimmer sieht viel heller aus und ich bin von der neuen Farbe ganz begeistert. Wahnsinn, was fuer einen Unterschied ein bissl Farbe machen kann...

My friends "Wurm" hat was well received, and since there was still some yarn leftover I made it into a cowl for her. Now she has a matching set.
Die Wurm Muetze kam bei meiner Freundin sehr gut an, und da noch Wolle uebrig war, habe ich ihr einen passenden cowl dazu gestrickt.

Friday, December 20, 2013

Recently it was quite cold here, which meant I got to wear my Wurm hat to work every morning. One of my friends and coworkers loved it and asked if I could knit her one as well. She offered to pay me for the knitting, but we decided to barter instead. Free haircuts for me and a nice warm hat for her. I love it when things work out like that. :-)

Thursday, December 12, 2013

If you've been reading here for a while, you know that I started recycling, up-cycling or reusing our chicken feed bags. Up until recently I just turned them into shopping bags, but then I thought I could do different things with them.

Here are a few things I came up with so far:

In the warmer month I like to hang our laundry outside to dry. This always meant bringing my clothes pin bag outside with me, since it was made of fabric that wasn't waterproof and faded in the sunlight.

Hopefully I won't have any of those problems with my new clothes pin bag!

Monday, December 9, 2013

Greg and I went to Lowe's yesterday and picked out our tree. Every year we seem to get it earlier than the year before, yet every year the selection gets worse. I was actually kind of shocked to see how many trees there were laying around that had large brown, dead patches on them. We did find a tree we liked and now we hope it'll make it until Christmas.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

We had planned on going to the movies and walking around Bridgestreet (outdoor shopping center) to look at their Christmas lights last week Friday. Nadia got sick on Thanksgiving though, so we had to change our plans.

Yesterday was a cold, blustery day, but we decided to bundle up and go anyway.

There were lots of people around before the movie started, but the place felt pretty deserted afterward.

I specifically went searching for a soft roll recipe, and even though these were very good, they were not "soft rolls". They were also huge! The recipe said it makes 16 rolls, so that is what I did. They would be great for sandwich type rolls, but not really dinner rolls.
Ich hatte mich extra auf die Suche nach einem "weichen" Broetchen Rezept gemacht, und obwohl sie lecker waren, waren sie nicht wirklich weich. Gedacht waren diese Broetchen als Beilage zum Essen, von der Groesse her waren sie aber eher fuer belegte Broetchen gedacht.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

I went through my yarn basket and found this yarn, it is called "Kamintage" (fireplace days) by Glasschmiede. It is such a gorgeous fall color and I decided to turn it into a cowl. I searched ravelry for a while, but in the end decided to just make up my own pattern. I started kitting on it yesterday and had actually gotten about 15 rows in, when I realized I had twisted the knitting. Aargh... time to frog it and start over...

Still reading Enders Game. I am glad my friend recommended it to me, it is not something I would have picked up on my own. It's a really good story.

About Me

I'm 46 years old and have been married to my hubby for 26 years. We have two wonderful girls, ages 16 and 18. I started this blog to stay in touch with our family and friends in Germany and here in the US. It's a little glimpse into our daily lives...